Rodgers' error that could have cost top 4..

The more and more I read about the Joe Allen injury and surgery, obviously more is revealed, and in that, I'm really disappointed that they (Rodgers & Allen/Medical team and whoever else) did not address this sooner, because with injuries, sometimes you have to take a calculated gamble, but the facts reveal this was one not worth it..

To read Rodgers commet: "to touch Allen's shoulder alone (near the end up to surgery) could have broken it", is a baffling statement to make, and I think it's the biggest mistake he's made to date by a long shot. Allen was very, very good in the early season, winning our player of the month (twice I think?), even a stand out to me at the Olympics for team GB, but his form became absolutely dreadful, and obviously this would be the reason why. If it was that bad, medically speaking, not only could he have broken it in right in a match, but he could have damaged himself long term, injured his career and possibly caused a never ending personal issue.. Furthermore, saying this, is a mistake by Rodgers for me, and a bad one, because hiding an injury and revealing it later when things go good, or fall just short of something great, make it a brave thing, but seeing how bad he was aside from the Zenit game, makes you realize what bad judgement was made. At the end of the day, it could have been Joe's decision, and that's the way today's athletes are, at least here in the states and we accept that, BUT, I find it hard to believe that his form was so superb in training, despite the injury, to outperform Henderson who was doing a nice job, and Shelvey who looks flat out angry when he's not playing..

If Lucas was also that badly injured, and only on the bench as an emergency, then why start either of them, and not play both of Jordan and Jonjo, or tweak it somewhere else to get in Sterling or Suso?

There is no 20/20 hindsight here.. And reading all the facts now, makes me very disappointed. Overall, I think Rodgers is doing a good job with all things considered, but he's made mistakes, and if playing Allen all this time, in such poor health is the case, he could have cost 2-3-4 games where we might have done better in the middle with someone else. This is a mistake I think/hope we never ever have to learn the hard way again.. I'm very disappointed with the facts, but looking forward to the weekend!

Jason...Ive been posting up my suspicions about Rogers and his playing his fave-boy from Swansea for quite some time, before it was revealed he had this shoulder injury. Even he hadnt had the shoulder injury his shockingly bad form should not have even earned him a spot on the bench let alone starting him...too right it was a huge mistake by Rogers...in my book another huge mistake to add to plenty of others hes made since his arrival. He is making all these mistakes while he learns his trade as a manager he should have been making his mistakes and learning his trade elsewhere we are too big a club to put up with his apprenticeship ..we should have brought someone with proven experience in to manage our club a journeyman not an apprentice.

Well Colin,
I agree there have been other mistakes, but for me this is the biggest in particular because Allen went from very good, to very bad in a quick period of time and none of us could really figure it out. I appreciate the fact they didn't want to make excuses, but I don't appreciate finding out how truly bad it was, and for whatever reason he was selecting him recently after a stint on the bench. It does raise a fair question about how Lucas is getting on, and quite obvious he's not at his best after the knee, but brings up Jordan and Jonjo

I think BR has gotten a lot of things right, and while I know you're not a fan along with others, in grand scheme of things I'm happy with things he's done, especially since we haven't had a manager who's had to deal with the plethora of issues he has, rather than just being a manager. But I hope in hindsight, he's learned his lesson here, and it will help him focus on what else he needs in the summer aside from the names we can feel fairly certain about, and the others we may cross our fingers over.

This summer will be critical for both Allen and Borini. Fortunately both are very young and we've at least seen what Allen can do on a good day, whereas Borini has not impressed and had 6 months of injuries. He was a very good player at Roma, but he's got to show something this summer or we need to #$%$ adding another striker or two.

I thought the point is to play your strongest team available? Well if fielding 2 clearly injured players is part of our strongest team.. then we're in serious trouble. Especially when we had other players who were fully fit.. Some serious questions need to be asked of Rodgers and the medical staff.. If Rodgers went against medical staff advice regarding Lucas & Allen.. then that raises serious doubts his ability to coach / manage LFC.

Jason... Loki addressed some questions to me and Ive replied to his post twice on this this thread each time its registered as posted and when I go "back to board" theres nothing there ??? R u experiencing similar problems with this board or is it just me btw this is the first time Ive experienced this particular problem... I detest this board format !

I see Loki's questions, but I don't see a response from you Colin, just a series of responses from Sofa replying to himself, which I suppose resembles some memories of our old board format and normalcy.

I understand they're trying to make things look more modern here, but the quality, style and manner in which we seem to be able to respond to each other, and track the order / consistency of the threads is pitiful. While you and I will never, ever agree on Andy Carroll, I know amongst many other things that we do agree on, this new format absolutely SUCKS!!!!!!!!

I'd rather be posting on the 1993 format of internet even if it makes us dinosaurs because this space age #$%$ is really annoying and stupid. And who the hell cares about popularity of a thread, just show the last poster for god's sake!